All publications cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Point-of-care echocardiography has become an accepted tool in NICUs. Training and skill maintenance require healthy “volunteers” and patients consenting to participate. Accordingly, subject availability is a significant problem in neonatology especially since repeated, prolonged echocardiography studies can adversely affect the condition of sick preterm and term neonates. Therefore, there is a need for the development of a sophisticated training tool available to trainees.
To address the unmet need, the inventors developed a neonatal echocardiographic simulator for training purposes capable of simulating hands-on experience of obtaining full range of echocardiography studies in a neonate.